Audio-Visual Ethnography in a Sepik Society
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ResearchOnline@JCU This file is part of the following reference: Vávrová, Daniela (2014) 'Skin has eyes and ears': audio- visual ethnography in a Sepik society. PhD thesis, James Cook University. Access to this file is available from: http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/28025/ The author has certified to JCU that they have made a reasonable effort to gain permission and acknowledge the owner of any third party copyright material included in this document. If you believe that this is not the case, please contact [email protected] and quote http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/28025/ Daniela Vávrová, PhD student 12434022 James Cook University, The Cairns Institute, School of Arts and Social Sciences ‘Skin has Eyes and Ears’ Audio-visual Ethnography in a Sepik Society by Daniela VÁVROVÁ Mag. Phil. University of Vienna, Austria, 2008 Thesis submitted to The School of Arts and Social Sciences and The Cairns Institute James Cook University in fulfilment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the discipline of Social and Cultural Anthropology January 2014 Daniela Vávrová, PhD student 12434022 James Cook University, The Cairns Institute, School of Arts and Social Sciences Daniela Vávrová, PhD student 12434022 James Cook University, The Cairns Institute, School of Arts and Social Sciences Statement of Authorship and Access I, the undersigned, declare that this thesis is my own work and has not been submitted in any form for another degree or diploma at any university or other institution of tertiary education. Information derived from the published or unpublished work of others has been acknowledged in the text and the list of references is given. I also declare that as the copyright owner of this thesis, I grant James Cook University a permanent non-exclusive licence to store, display or copy any part, or all of the thesis, in all forms of media, for use within the University, and to make the thesis freely available online to other persons or organisations. I do not wish to place any restriction on access to this work. Daniela Vávrová 16 May 2014 Daniela Vávrová, PhD student 12434022 James Cook University, The Cairns Institute, School of Arts and Social Sciences Daniela Vávrová, PhD student 12434022 James Cook University, The Cairns Institute, School of Arts and Social Sciences For Santa Maria the Explorer and Hector Downie and the Pacific Ocean Daniela Vávrová, PhD student 12434022 James Cook University, The Cairns Institute, School of Arts and Social Sciences Daniela Vávrová, PhD student 12434022 James Cook University, The Cairns Institute, School of Arts and Social Sciences ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It has been already more than fifteen years that my feet have not rested and my heart feels that to be at home is at home in the world. I left my native Slovakian country with the wish to travel and see this world full of different languages, cultures and environments. I felt that being from such a small country like Slovakia, I needed to broaden my horizons and to learn about my own culture through experiencing other cultures. I have dedicated my life to learning, experimenting, creating, and the understanding of humanities. My first gratitude goes to the Karawari-speaking Ambonwari people of East Sepik Province in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Their passion and collaboration in my research made me a different person. I am most indebted to my widowed ‘sister’ Augustina and her children and grandchildren, the late Jack, Bapra, Glenda, Pamela, Bradly, Nazeria, Elta, Lenon, Maia, Soroni, and Sanggrmari, who were my hosts while I was in the village. Their trust and friendship means a lot to me. I also have to mention and thank our ‘brothers’ Daniel and Lawrence, to the knowledgeable man Francis and teacher Julias, but also to James, Alexia, Samson, Enet, and many others. All of them became my extended Papua New Guinean family and friends. I was introduced to Ambonwari by the Slovene anthropologist Borut Telban, who has been returning to the village since his initial fieldwork in 1990. He was my inspiration for anthropology and the world of Papua New Guinea. I would like to acknowledge his ongoing support. His companionship in the field was very important and his knowledge of the Karawari people continues >Acknowledgements vii Daniela Vávrová, PhD student 12434022 James Cook University, The Cairns Institute, School of Arts and Social Sciences to inspire my work. The local Polish priest Piotrek Waśko became a friend too and a valuable partner in discussions we had during the nights of his visits to Ambonwari. I was fortunate, with him, to see the surrounding areas of Ambonwari and to visit the villages in Amboin Parish. It would not have been possible to carry out my work without the supervisory support of my principal supervisor Prof. Ton Otto, co-supervisor Prof. Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald, associate advisor Dr. Michael Wood, external advisor Prof. David MacDougall, and the assistance of research student monitor Dr. Nerina Caltabiano. Ton Otto made me feel very welcome when I arrived as his first PhD student at JCU in 2010 not long after Ton had taken up his position as tropical leader. We both were not new to the tropics, but we were new to the JCU system. In the tropics time runs slower than in the northern hemisphere and we both had to adjust to and learn to enjoy our new environment. We had an inspirational time and discussed extensively aspects of audio-visual research in PNG and my research in particular. There is a large PNG community in Cairns which made it an ideal and strategic place to live. We embarked, with Ton, on a longer co-operative journey exploring the visual in anthropology. My thesis would not be as it is without his passion and time invested. Michael Wood has become a valued discussant in many philosophical inquiries about anthropology and life. I am glad to have had him around and will not forget our coffee and cigarette brakes. Alexandra Aikhenvald helped me many times with university infrastructural questions and gave me valuable linguistic advice for my thesis, which makes it interesting for linguists too. David MacDougall has inspired my work since the very beginning and has provided very valuable filmic advice and challenges to my writings. >Acknowledgements viii Daniela Vávrová, PhD student 12434022 James Cook University, The Cairns Institute, School of Arts and Social Sciences My research would not have been possible without the financial support of James Cook University (JCU) in Australia, School of Arts and Social Sciences and The Cairns Institute in particular. I was awarded an International Postgraduate Research Scholarship and a Research Tuition Scholarship. JCU also covered additional expenses I had such as, for example, necessary antimalarial tablets for an entire year of my fieldwork. Among other important institutions that helped me to realise my research project are: the National Research Institute of PNG which gave me the necessary affiliation and permission to carry out my project; and the Firebird Foundation for Anthropological Research which also covered some of the expenses in the field and enabled me to secure some additional audio equipment. I would also like to thank the Institute of Anthropological and Spatial Studies, Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts for the audio-visual equipment, which I have used in the field since 2007. Gary Gulliford, manager of video-conferencing and audiovisual services at JCU in Cairns helped me with technical preparation for the field. I deeply thank him for all his time and effort, which ensured my fieldwork had almost no technical trouble. I also want to mention Dr. Linus S. Digim’Rina, anthropologist at the University of Papua New Guinea for his help and hospitality whenever I was in Port Moresby. There are also a few individuals who contributed financially and spiritually to my fieldwork, my European friends and relatives, Maria Leutzendorff, Danica Telban, Karol Školnik, Petra Bosá, Allison Jablonko, and of course my mother Mária Vávrová, Stanislav Vávra, and my sister Marta Garajová with her family. I also want to thank one of the greatest ethnographic filmmakers, Gary Kildea for his advice and his passion for filmmaking and flying that we share together; to Darja Hoenigman and her advice on language and subtitling in my thesis’ film as >Acknowledgements ix Daniela Vávrová, PhD student 12434022 James Cook University, The Cairns Institute, School of Arts and Social Sciences well as our friendship and shared interest in PNG culture; and Prof. Kim Usher from the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Nutrition at JCU who has supported my research since the beginning of my studies in 2010. I also had the opportunity to cooperate in her projects. I cannot forget to thank Elena Rhind, who looked after the first postgraduate research students at The Cairns Institute, and Dominique Sandilant at the School of Arts and Social Sciences for her help and assistance in managing my finances. And I cannot forget to thank the friends and academics at The Australian National University. I was able to work on my thesis’ material and present some of my audio-visual work in January and February 2013 when I was affiliated as a Visiting Fellow at the Research School of Humanities and the Arts, and their Digital Humanities Hub. Among a few I want to mention are Chris Ballard and Mem Wilson, Michael W. Young and Elizabeth Brouwer, Pip Deveson, Melinda Hinkson, and Judith MacDougall. Ultimately, my written thesis was improved by the editorial services of The Expert Editor (Brendan Brown). My last, but not least gratitude, goes to my friends and colleagues at JCU. Many of them successfully graduated and are leading their contemporary projects; Peter Wood, Lisa King, Dawn Glass and Bård Aaberge.